In recent years, game consoles have become quite popular consumer devices, becoming a ubiquitous fixture in homes around the world. In particular, the increasing market penetration of game consoles has inspired game developers and others to work diligently to develop new game titles and other applications for game consoles. Traditionally, when a new game or product for a game console is released, a marketing group places advertisements and develops merchandising materials for retail outlets to inform consumers about the newly available products. Common media channels for advertising include print and online magazines, fanzines, Internet retailers, select websites, television commercials, and the like. However, outside of such conventional media channels, it is often difficult to alert game console owners of new products for their console that may be of interest to them. Furthermore, there are often so many products available that are related to a single game title or game series, such as additional game levels and add-in components, that it is impractical to advertise all of them through some focused media channel in a conventional manner.
Similarly, it has historically been difficult to provide a simple and expedient way for consumers to learn about and purchase the multitude of new products that are available to them. Although desirable, it has been even more elusive to develop a way for consumers to learn about related products that might interest a consumer, based on the specific games, applications, and media already purchased by the consumer. Many companies presently market products to consumers based on a demographic profile created from the consumer's own purchases, using for example, credit and debit card purchase histories, models developed by marketing experts, and other data derived from online transactions by consumers. However, consumers such as children typically do not have a credit or debit card that is used in making purchases of goods and which can thus provide historical data for targeting these consumers based on their prior purchases. Furthermore, many adult consumers are concerned with the privacy of their credit account transactions and limit the use of debit and credit purchases or take steps to prevent data related to those purchases from being collected. Thus, there is a substantial need for alternative approaches that can facilitate more effective merchandising of electronic media related content.